Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

As I understand it, John Herda was a hardware store owner in the area of Hales Corner, WI just NW of Racine, WI. He was also a farmer and had good connections within MH Racine. He was often called upon by MH for photo opportunities with equipment working the fields.

Here are a few pics of John on some new equipment. I will post them under different posts but the first one should be one that is familiar with some of you paper collectors. This is John sitting on a MH 101 taking a break from plowing with a cool drink from the water jug. This pic or some very similar have appeared in some of the 101 advertising. You will see John's face on many of the advertising materials made in this era.

GTE

PS - I would not stake my first born on the accuracy of this information but it was what was passed on to me!! (See, I still love you Drew!!)

RE:Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

This is John as he drives the red MH Challenger (check out that muffler!!) through the wheat field pulling a MH Combine. I can't tell the combine model but I have to assume it is a Massey. Wish we had a crew of guys following along when we were harvesting!! Were they working or looking???

RE:Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

I won't promise that this is Mr Herda on either piece but I have to think he is driving the GP. Again this is a nice pic of the MH #10 Grain Binder pulled by the MH GP. If you can enlarge the picture, you will see the driver's jacket clearly says "Massey Harris Wallis Tractors" on his back. So who has one of these jackets in their closet!?!?!

RE:Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

Here are a couple of pics of an early Pacemaker or Challenger (neither have a button so I don't know) pulling a 3 bottom plow. Again, I will assume the pic was taken on the Herda farm but he is not driving the tractor.

RE:Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

Thanks for posting the pictures Gary! There are some interesting scenes there....

The red challenger is painted just like I have seen in the advertisements with the black front hubcaps and the black locking ring for the rear wheels.
I will post a picture of the US edition of the 1938 Challenger / Pacemaker advertisement. (The canadian version has two Pacemakers in this same position.)

Also on the green Challenger. This tractor is a very interesting one, more than likely a pre-production challenger or one of the first 5. The differences of the very first ones are different drawbar, if you can see the radiator it should have the "Massey Harris" cast separate from the radiator top and bolted on like the 12-20's. The radiator top also has the oval cap like the 12-20 instead of the round challenger cap. This Challenger also has a 12-20 head on it yet! The more I look the more odd things I see. There is also a parking brake like the 12-20's on it.
And I almost forgot the different hood decals that do not say "Challenger"

RE:Racine MH Plant - John F Herda

Just jumped on here to check this out, Cool looking tractor!! I also noticed the throtle is down below and the front pedistal is taller as you can see the steering shaft is a good four inches above the radiator and it has a knuckle on it not just a straight pinned coupler. Keep the great pictures comming!!

Brenden has the sight fixed up now so you should not have to shrink pictures down before loading them it should do it by itself now.